When London agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) formed a New York office in October 1998, it was like a breath of fresh air for the New York ad scene. BBH, which also has offices in Singapore and Tokyo, had a long and rich history of creating premium advertising in Europe. Upon opening stateside, the iconic John Hegarty (the "H" in the agency moniker) came to New York to oversee the launch.
Debuting with the Reebok account, BBH, New York, had all the spit and fire of a start-up, but with the underpinnings of a storied agency behind it. Since then, the ad shop has had two executive creative directors, the first being Ty Montague, who left two years ago to join Wieden+Kennedy, New York. Taking over the creative reins at the shop was current executive creative director, Kevin McKeon, who came to BBH after a seven-year stay at Lowe New York, where he was a group creative director.
In four short years BBH is able to boast an increase in billings from $140 million to $250 million. In January of this year, the agency was awarded the U.S. portion of the Levi’s account. (BBH London has handled creative duties for the account in Europe for 20 years.)
BBH, New York, recently broke its first two ads for the denim retailer, "French Dictionary" and "Atlas Bakery," both directed by Ivan Zacharias of bicoastal Smuggler and London-based Stink. And with the impending launch of a multi-level, integrated advertising campaign for Axe Deodorant Bodyspray, it would seem that the little shop that could isn’t so little anymore.
New business means more work, and McKeon has had to staff up his creative department accordingly. When he started in March of ’01, the creative department consisted of McKeon, group creative director Thomas Hayo, copywriter Peter Kain and art director Gianfranco Arena, two digital designers and a part-time producer. Today, the department has eight creative teams, including two group creative directors—Hayo, who works exclusively on Levi’s, and William Gelner. Additionally, the shop has three producers, with plans to add a fourth. In short, since January, the agency has gone from barely 60 employees to a staff of 100.
New Work
For McKeon, it’s an exciting time to be at BBH. For a while the agency had a few juicy clients on its roster—namely Axe, Bertolli olive oil and now Levi’s—that weren’t ready to launch any new work, until now. Meanwhile, efforts for Johnnie Walker, ING Direct and Partnership for a Drug Free America are going strong, making BBH’s entire roster of clients active.
When McKeon first approached Hegarty about the executive creative director position via an e-mail that he says took him two days to compose, he didn’t think he’d get it. He’d had what anyone would consider a successful career in advertising. He was hired as a copywriter at Needham Harper Steers (now DDB) after spending only one year at School of Visual Arts, New York. From there he’d done stints at New York agencies Ammirati & Puris, BBDO, and various incarnations of what is now Lowe. At Lowe, he’d worked on high profile accounts such as Mercedes-Benz and Heineken, but he still thought he lacked a certain amount of fame to join BBH. "I wasn’t a name. I was proud of my work, but I wasn’t an industry star," recalls McKeon.
Hegarty was looking for someone who not only had the breadth of McKeon’s creative experience, but who could also manage a department. "When we met, I spoke more about the big vision, about the ideals of what an agency like BBH should stand for and I think that’s what he reacted to," recollects McKeon of his interview with Hegarty.
BBH operates on 10 core beliefs that are etched in glass in the lobby of its New York office. To name a few, BBH believes in "The power of creativity and the primacy of the idea; The right of everyone to be listened to; The importance of effectiveness and accountability; Processes that liberate creativity…" The list continues, but overall, it is the agency’s intent to look for advertising that connects on an emotional level. To do that, the creatives at the shop have to stay committed to those principles, and operate accordingly. For instance, one of its founding principles is to present a client with only one idea, a practice generally unheard of at other shops. These are ideals that McKeon already believes in and he doesn’t have any interest in changing them, he’s just putting his own spin on things.
What that means is McKeon has brought his unique temperament to the table—he tends to get very excited and emotive in meetings. In addition, he brings an American perspective to an agency whose other principals in New York, president Cindy Gallop and strategic planning director Emma Cookson, are both British. "In pitches," explains McKeon, "I have a little bit of my own take tonally, like the different ways we should talk about things so they don’t come across wrong to the people here in this market."
For instance, BBH will not present speculative creative, meaning they won’t pitch with actual ads. It’s a practice that McKeon agrees with, but at the same time feels can send the wrong message to an American client. "Instead we say that we have a different take on the way we’re going to do this," notes McKeon. "That way the approach becomes more inclusive to the client. We’re still not relinquishing any control, but we’re aware of the fact that they’re used to having it."
Getting Results
Internally, McKeon stays very involved with the creative teams, but gives them ample room to breathe. He’s also delegated some of the management to Hayo and Gelner. "I keep an open dialogue with everyone and I walk the floor a lot," he relates. "I try not to be the guy who’s upstairs in his big office that you have to come to at X-Y-Z point in time to present your work. There’s just no time for that."
It’s a management approach that has garnered tangible results. Its creative for Cantor Fitzgerald’s electronic bond trading technology, eSpeed, effectively increased the client’s Web site hits by 550 percent after the work broke earlier this year. The spots, directed by Errol Morris of bicoastal/ international @radical.media, show Cantor Fitzgerald employees talking about what they have done to get the company, which had offices in the upper floors of the World Trade Center, back on its feet after it lost 657 employees on Sept. 11th.
The fact that Levi’s awarded BBH the U.S. portion of its business without putting the account in review is another testament to the agency’s creative reputation. Levi’s charged BBH with the task of helping the retailer reclaim its leadership in an increasingly over-saturated denim market. Its first TV effort, comprising a pair of spots for Levi’s Low Rise jeans—"French Dictionary" and "Atlas Bakery"—is a step toward giving the brand a cooler, sexier image.
"It’s absolutely essential that Levi’s reconnects with the youth market in America," says Hayo, who oversees the account. "So the spots have to work on two levels. We want to elevate the brand back to a place where young people think it’s cool and sexy, and at the same time support whichever line item Levi’s is pushing."
BBH copywriter Peter Rosch and art director John Hobbs approached the problem by crafting two TV spots that give you the feeling that you’re watching an excerpt from an action/adventure movie. In "Atlas Bakery," a sexy young woman sneaks into a chop shop and steals her stolen car back, busting out of the garage at top speed. And in "French Dictionary," a young couple in a car gives the bad guys the slip, then ditches the automobile in the harbor. A moment later the young man realizes he’s forgotten something, jumps into the water to reclaim the precious object that we later learn is a French dictionary. The cinematic style is gritty, the story lines entertaining and the product placement seamless.
Hayo has plans to revamp Levi’s image at every point of contact with the consumer, including TV, print, in-store display and packaging. "We approached it as an assignment that’s bigger than just making some good television ads," notes Hayo. "It is about looking at the brand and seeing how to change the perception."
While the shop grapples with how to reinvent an age-old product like Levi’s, it’s simultaneously trying to find the best way to introduce a new product category to the American market—Axe, which is a deodorant body spray that also works as a cologne. It’s a concept that’s well known in Europe, but new to the U.S. The difficulty is, the target audience is teenage boys, who tend to think everything put in front of them is stupid—everything except girls. To that end, BBH is introducing a fully integrated campaign known as "The Axe Effect." The campaign includes a series of :15 educational spots (directed by Lemoine/Miller of @radical.media) introducing the product to the market, a viral campaign that can be viewed at www.theaxeeffect.com, a separate college campaign, radio spots and one brand spot that will be shown in cinemas. "To dumb it down, the Axe Effect is about getting chicks," relates McKeon. "We’ve created these commercials about the effect this stuff has on girls."b
